$YOU.L: is YouGov really an AI loser? | Jonathan Cohen, Zipperline Capital

The market has decided YouGov ($YOU.L) is an AI loser and cut it ~50% in a year. Jonathan Cohen of Zipperline Capital thinks it's an AI winner trading at 6-7x EBITDA, with a 20-year proprietary dataset AI makes more valuable, not less. We spend the first half on the UK as an "emerging market" (corporate governance discounts, why buybacks are finally happening, and why you can never compare UK and US multiples), then go deep on YouGov: the panel, the moat, synthetic data, and why the company is cancelling its dividend to buy back stock.

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Chapters:

00:00 Why YouGov could be the AI winner the market is misreading

02:56 Why Jonathan Cohen runs a UK and Europe small/mid-cap book

08:01 Why you can never compare UK and US multiples

13:08 What UK analyst coverage actually tells you

17:37 The shift toward UK buybacks and capital allocation

22:00 The "buybacks kill liquidity" myth

25:11 What YouGov really is: a proprietary data business

31:19 Inside the panel: why people answer, and why retention is the moat

36:52 Why the market thinks YouGov is an AI loser

38:19 The bull case: why AI makes YouGov more valuable

40:55 Synthetic data, and why it breaks

46:28 Trust as a moat in a world of AI slop

52:27 Pushback: Chegg, Wix, and the real AI losers

56:51 Content businesses vs distribution businesses

01:00:14 Music, media, and what compounds through disruption

01:05:38 Closing

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Production and editing by The Podcast Consultant - https://thepodcastconsultant.com/